I would highly recommend installing any BSD you can get your hands on.

Long time Linux user (since late 90's) but had always wanted to test BSD because I've appreciated its BSD licensing.
So I started testing FreeBSD and its off-shoots but then decided on testing and stayed using OpenBSD instead for its philosophy.
Mostly run OpenBSD -Stable on servers and very recently diving in to -Current for using on non-server equipment.
Of course I still run Slackware for its speed, no nonsense, KISS and traditional Linuxy approach. And do have a couple of RasPi's that run some variety of Debian for ease of implementation.

OpenBSD is not an offshoot of FreeBSD.

I did't say it was, I think it was my badly worded sentence that implied it. original post edited to fix it.
Thanks

Going to use the current machine as a poudriere build server. I have have always had issues mixing ports and packages so I just don't. I know you can lock packages, but then if an update comes, I have to remember to do it manually. I have minimal software requirements and everything I need is in a package. With a build server, I'll have every port at my disposal to build as a package.

I have tried one of the build tools: synth maybe, not poudriere. It worked OK, but wanted to rebuild webkitgtk almost every single time I updated and that's an hour build or so. My problem was that I was building on the machine I was using so having a separate machine will be good. Probably not a fault of the build system: maybe things built against webkitgtk were being updated.

Not sure this needs an update but I did build a new machine and "promote" the older high horsepower box to a ports build server. Started with poudriere and got it working but found it a bit cludgy to use and I could never figure out why it kept a separate version of the ports tree, or how to update that separate copy. I am sure there is a way, I just couldn't find it. I ended up removing poudriere and using synth, which I had used on a local machine before. As a build server, it works flawlessly for me. I use portsnap to update the standard ports tree every few weeks or so, then use my ports.txt (list of installed ports) so synth can check and rebuild anything that needs rebuilding. My ports build server is set up as the source of pkgs for my main workstation.

Only downside to this is if I want to play with a particular software package, I need to fire up the build server (normally powered off), then build the pkg and install from the workstation. Not a big deal, just something I have to live with because I want custom packages and I don't want to leave the build server running 24x7 - it's a huge electricity hog and the 2 15,000 rpm SAS drives in it make enough heat to bake cookies...setting up the build server was easy and gave me a chance to use ZFS and get familiar with it.

All in all the move to FreeBSD was very smooth and I have settled on a window manager and tools to get done what I need to.

OpenBSD just makes me feel good, and pleased with my computers.

Agreed! OpenBSD is first rate! :)

It seems the OP has moved on, with but a single post (that started this thread). Perhaps he found his way to UNIX.com or daemonforums.org.

Regardless, here's an article that highlights some differences.

From that article:

The author has no clue about BSD, obviously.

Yup, I think he comes from Linux-land.

It looks like he got some portion of that information from TrueOS users in a Telegram chat and a thread he created on the TrueOS Discourse board. One of the posts in that thread may explain where he got the idea of "ZFS is built into the BSD kernels":

Another poster in the same thread praises the ease of use they find in TrueOS:


Teeny Weeny Chili Beany...
The Spirits are about to Speak!

My :twocents:

While I am merely dabbling in BSD, I can understand the consideration to switch - as mentioned systemd. Although coming from Slackware, I plan to stick with that until the very end - though I have made a list of backup OSs. While a BSD wouldn't be my second choice - that goes to Devuan, I think BSD would be a third as I probably cannot consider any other Linux distro.

Of the three BSDs (well unless you count just the 2, unless someone is still using NetBSD), I will go for a FreeBSD or derivative of a FreeBSD. I find that OpenBSD is just too restrictive for me in some ways, primarily I personally do not care if I have to run a binary BLOB like the NVIDIA driver, that is one thing and my other main reason is the adoption of ZFS / OpenZFS; which is also something that apparently NetBSD has ported, but not OpenBSD. It is nice that FreeBSD finally decided to adopt a journaling FS , but one that is rather impressive feature-wise. I remember iterations back the devs were resistant(?) , no maybe thats too harsh - reluctant to adopt a journaling FS. Sorry UFS+ just seems like a cop out. ZFS is much superior. Plus I do not see myself having an external HD formatted just as UFS. I would still feel more warm and fuzzy (maybe just psychologically) - if I knew that the FS was more modern and not UFS.

OpenBSD could work for some, but I am not too keen on that much of a purist stance on drivers, and since NVIDIA has binaries from BSD (FreeBSD), then that is what I would stick with if in the furthest future I end up on a BSD system.

For this year, I have switched most of my computers over to OpenBSD, as having trialled it last year as a secondary OS, I found it to be very suitable for the way that I use my machines. :)

So, the only machines not running it, are those that have some hardware not supported by the OS, which are few these days, (my old Toshiba Satellite) - even my Raspberry Pi's are getting there.

Thanks "fatmac" noting you are running OpenBSD on a Raspberry Pi.

Being completely new to *BSD (any BSD) after MIPS's BSD flavoured Unix of 1988, RISC/OS not to be confused with the Acorn version.

Can somebody point me on how to install (any) *BSD onto the Banana Pi M2 Berry (clearly mentioned on OpenBSD as supported)
WITH JUST AN INTEL LINUX BOX?

I have no reason to build a *BSD box on a PC first. - And I mean that.

Project: Ham Radio Repeater controllers doing Digital Voice, Codec2, see www.freedv.org

daemonforums please, exactly where, give us a URL please.

And I might add, WITHOUT a serial console. Connect via SSH or the HDMI and USB keyboard.
This has to be such that others can duplicate my work and build a *BSD system easily.

NB: I did this when the Banana Pi first came out, the first Pi board WITH a SATA controller
and to it I added a 1Tb disk.
No SD card wear out problems ever again....
Fedora 22 as I recall.

Alan VK2ZIW